Sephardic Jews in Massachusetts
Solomon Franco was probably the second declared Jew to set foot on English territory on the North American mainland. He was a convert to Anglicanism and an agent for Immanuel Perada in Holland. The English governor paid him to leave!
It is sometimes unclear whether early Jews were Ashkenazi or Sephardi. Raephaell Abandada living in Boston in 1695 was clearly Sephardic. In 1705-06 Luis Gomez had a court case in Boston. Isaac Lopez and Abraham Gotatus arrived from London in 1716. Lopez, whose brother was a London merchant, was elected a constable in Boston in 1720. He later moved to New York. In 1728 Samuel Brasilla acted in his absence.
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~matttp/resources/early-jewish-residents.pdf
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